Category Archives: Feature Stories

The Pan African Film & Arts Festival celebrated its 27th Annual Opening Night with a screening of Aretha Franklin’s cherished Amazing Grace concert documentary at the Directors Guild of America. The festival, which presents an impressive slate of over 170 new Black films from the US and around the world and exhibits more than 100 fine artists and unique craftspeople, will run from Thursday, February 7 through Monday, February 18 at the Cinemark Rave 15 Theatres (3650 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd) and the adjacent Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza in Los Angeles, California.

Los Angeles-Yes, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. It’s that time of year again. It’s time for the most highly anticipated and largest Black History Month celebration in Los Angeles, if not, the largest in California.
Please pull up a seat and get ready for the 27th Annual Pan African Film and Arts Festival, scheduled from February 7-18, 2019. The festival will be at the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza and the adjacent Cinemark RAVE Theatres.

International model, actress, media personality and filmmaker Hana Noka will unveil the story of Queen Teuta of Illyria with the launch of the historical fictional novel “Besa Po,” inspired by the true story of love, loss, betrayal, victory and defeat. Queen Teuta was not only a famous Warrior Queen that lived almost two hundred years before Cleopatra, but her love for King Agron was one of the most legendary love stories in history. She was one of the first women to rise to power in the male dominated kingdom and society.

Four stories presented at St. Mary’s Catholic Church during an event sponsored by the church’s social justice committee this month highlighted the various ways people come to the U.S. to live. The four speakers were all people that someone at the church had a connection with, said church member Kathryn Lien.

Malika Benachour is a French-Algerian who first came to the U.S. as a student. Catalina Morales Behena crossed the Mexican border with her parents. Babatope Adedayo won the diversity lottery in Nigeria. Mainhia Moua’s parents came to the U.S. as refugees from Laos after the Vietnam War.

As we celebrate the monumental life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who gave his life to dissolve social inequities for the “other”, the partial government shutdown over immigration security has lasted for over thirty (30) days, which is the longest in United States history (9 of the 15 federal agencies closed). Over 800,000 federal workers and contractors are not receiving a paycheck, which is impacting over 172,000 in the entire state of Maryland and costing $4.8 billion dollars in economic impact throughout the nation.

The primary asset of any society is its people. That’s true in the lofty spiritual sense and in the crass financial one: Other people produce both the economic goods and the tax revenue that sustain the nation.

Like any other asset, this one needs to be replenished by continual reinvestment. A society that stops replacing itself is like a trust-fund kid dipping into the capital. The accounts empty at an accelerating pace, and a bill eventually comes due that cannot be paid.

With the 2019 CES show having debuted multiple diet-focused consumer technologies, including devices that analyze the gases in people’s breath to uncover what diet improvements would be helpful for them, there is much ado about progressive digital solutions fostering slimdown success this New Year and beyond.

What do the names Obama, Bloomberg, Wintour, Gates, Crawford, Trudeau and Ma have in common? They all have enjoyed the musical innovation by Jennifer Zhang. The award-winning Asian American music artist is bridging cultural borders on the global music scene with the premiere of her new single and accompanying video “Flying High,” a unique song exploration that melds American pop music with traditional Chinese instrumentals.

The annual Central Avenue Jazz Festival celebrates the legacy of the historic Central Avenue corridor in South Los Angeles and is one of the last few genuine jazz celebrations left in the Southern California region. This festival is a free family-friendly event paying tribute to jazz greats such Louis Armstrong, Charles Mingus, Billie Holiday, Dexter Gordon and Gerald Wilson, while putting a spotlight on the younger emerging artists that are continuing this rich art form.

From the early 1900s to the 1950s, Central Avenue became the epicenter for music, especially with the sound of Rhythm and Blues, and upbeat tones of Jazz. With music as its center, Central Avenue quickly became the heart and soul of the African American community in Los Angeles.

His father was thrown into prison over a couple bottles of milk. Magazine, The Immigrant Experience, Forbes As a toddler in Cuba, Tony Hernandez was diagnosed with a severe calcium deficiency. Dairy could help, but was severely rationed by the Castro government. His father bought 2 liters on the black market, got caught and was…